Monthly Archives: November 2014

On Thursday we were given the task to work in groups of 3 and design a mode of transport which would carry an egg.

The idea was based upon The BBC 2 show which ran from 1979 to 1986 it was a science-based show ‘which introduced BBC Two viewers to teams of inventors who took on the challenge of building gadgets using limited resources.

We had to use this idea but create ours using Maya.

This was the Dragon Mobile we created to carry the egg. It is propelled by one large wheel and then supported by 4 smaller wheels. I really liked how it turned out and I had a lot of fun doing this project.

Title: Character Archetypes and how They Have Influenced the Female Stereotypes of Animation

Research Question: How are more female characters in modern animation breaking with the original archetypes set out in the writers Journey and what effect is this having on the character stereotypes usually seen in animation?

Within this article I would like to examine the character archetypes set out in ‘The Writers Journey’ and how these archetypes have been used through out animation. I would like to write about why stereotyping has become a huge problem with these character archetypes. I would also like to look at how in Animations made in the last decade these ideas are changing and some of the stereotypes previously associated with some character archetypes are now being broken.

In this article I would like to look at the idea of the Female Heroine and how certain stereotypes have become associated with this type of character. There are certain ‘thoughts’ that come to mind when creating a Heroine. If she relies on strength in battle her appearance can often become Amazonian featuring more prominent muscles and stature, but loses some of her femininity. On the other side of this stereotyping of a Heroine if she retains a more delicate appearance she tends to have some skill or ‘power’ which helps her overcome any obstacles opposing her in her quest but this type of character would also lose her independence and often be paired with a male partner who would take on a ‘Warrior’ role. In more modern animation they have begun creating a better balance between these features so that female characters become stronger more independent while breaking with the stereotypes and creating more realistic Heroines which an audience can relate to.

The two main Heroines I would like to look at in this article are ‘Eep’ from ‘The Croods’ and ‘Merida’ from ‘Brave’. This is because they both exemplify and reject the characteristics of the ‘Heroine Stereotype’ I outlined earlier. Eep takes on some of the ‘Amazonian’ characteristics in that she is muscular and uses her strength to acquire what she wants but she is in many ways an incredibly feminine character who displays a sweetness and tendency towards emotional vulnerability when it comes to her love interest. Merida however while being the more delicate in appearance of these two characters and taking on the stereotype of having a skill rather than brute strength is considered to be unfeminine as a character as she does not exhibit any of the usual traits associated with a ‘Princess’ character.

Research Question: Why are specific genders and sexualities associated with certain character archetypes and will the modern animation industry be able to break these associations?

Within this article I would like to examine the character archetypes set out in ‘The Writers Journey’ and how these archetypes have been used through out animation. I would like to write about why gender stereotyping has become a huge problem with these character archetypes as well as why Heterosexual relationships are presented as the only option in many animations. I would also like to look at how in Animations made in the last decade these ideas are changing and some of the stereotypes previously associated with some character archetypes are now being broken.

A few examples of specific areas I would like to look into are;
1. The Passive Princesses and Nameless Princes of Disney

2. How in some animations if a characters sexuality deviates from Heterosexuality it is often used as a joke or only alluded to rather than fully made an example of (See How to Train your Dragon 2 and Paranorman)

3. I would also like to look at the idea of the Female Heroine and how certain Directors and Studios (Ghibli) Have often had strong female characters in the past and how it is only in more recent animations that other studios (Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks) Have begun creating stronger more independent female characters.

Some of the films I would like to examine are;
1. Paranorman
2. Brave3. How to train your dragon4. The Croods5. Nausicaa of The Valley of The Wind6. Princess Mononoke

I believe these films have good examples of strong female characters (Astrid, Eep, Mononoke) and characters where their sexuality does not follow the normal Heterosexual pattern as in many other animations. I am also going to use, ‘The Writers Journey’ to examine character the roles of characters throughout this essay.

In this article I would like to begin by writing an analysis of which character archetypes apply to each of the main characters in the animations I have chosen. I would also like to make reference to how many of the female characters in these films are complete opposites of some of Disney’s Classic Princesses. I would also like to look at how the sexuality of some characters is left ambiguous or even outright stated as being homosexual, this also includes looking at the potential for Merida from Brave to be an asexual character. I am going to write an analysis of why in many Ghibli movies female characters were given more power and influence and are aligned with Nature. While male characters are aligned with Human influence and have less impact over the plot than their female counterparts. Whereas in many Western animations plot was mainly driven by the influence of a male character while a female character had action happen passively around her. To conclude my article I would like to explain how more animations in order to become relevant to a modern audience are now breaking with most stereotypes particularly when it comes to gender and sexuality.

It is becoming more popular as animation techniques become more sophisticated to create animated documentaries.

This is interesting as animations have more fantasy, caricature, stylisation, abstraction, exaggeration and transformation. Where as in documentary the audience usually sees truth, seriousness, evidence and as much as possible an objective point of view. This brings forwards the point about what documentaries should and shouldn’t contain and whether it is even possible to have an ‘animated documentary.’ Documentary itself can be seen in many different ways. John Grierson see it as,

“the creative treatment of actuality”

(Grierson, 1993:8)

While others like Bill Nichols see documentaries as addressing,

“the world in which we live rather than a world imagined by the filmmaker”

(Nichols, 2001:xi)

These two help us think of animation as a viable means of documentary expression it can be used as a creative way of treating actuality. Animation can also be used to substitute for any missing material the documentarist might need. An example of this would be The Sinking of the Lusitania. Animated documentaries began appearing more frequently after this and by the end of the Twentieth Century, animated documentary was firmly established. Animated documentaries are now an increasingly commonplace sub-form of documentary being included in animation and documentary festivals without question.

Animated documentaries are quite popular because they can do what live action cannot which to to recreate events that cannot be seen. This could be seen as Mimetic substitution in which animation illustrates something that would be very hard, or impossible, to show with live-action. The best way in which this can be seen is to watch any documentary about dinosaurs as all the creatures seen would have to be created digitally.

In this way we can see how the animated documentary is a real option when it comes to communicating facts to an audience.

Individual students will produce a 2,500-3,000-word essay, which will explore one (or more) of the issues covered during the module programme.

Essay requirements.
Proposing a question.

The Topic

The Research Question

Importance to the field of your research

The outline for the essay

Bibliography

Use books and journals rather than the web.
Use the Harvard scale for Bibliography.
Keep essay clean and presentable.

What interests you?
Themes
Hot topics
Popular research themes in journals
Styles/genres/national animation
Categories of animation

These were a few ideas which I thought might be interesting to expand upon in an essay:

1. How narrative changes between films from different cultures. Particularly in conveying the folklore and local stories of the area.

– A Cat In Paris – The Triplets of Belleville – The Illusionist

2. How culture affects the narrative and style of an animation. – Chicken Run – Wallace and Gromit

3. Examine how different directors examine ‘Stories and Legends’ from a different cultural point of view. ‘American Mulan’ v ‘Chinese Mulan’ – A traditional concept of Mulan – Disney’s Mulan

4. African fairytales and style vs European fairytales and style. – The Tale of How – The Tale of How – Kirikou and The Sorceress
5. Western and Asian animation what changes what remains the same and how the narrative is used. – Spirited Away – Disney’s Alice in Wonderland
6.Why the animations of different cultures take on certain styles. The iconography, imagery and narrative of different cultures.
7. Genders in Fairytales of different cultures, ‘The passive Princess’ of European tales, ‘The trickster Hero’ of African tales and ‘The Humble Hero’ of Asian tales. – Disney’s Snow White
8. How Gods, Goddesses and Deities are presented in different animation and cultures (See: Sita Sings the Blues, Hercules, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbour Totoro, Waking Life, The Secret of the Kells) Dealing with hugely powerful spiritual beings in animation, not always Gods. – Sita Sings the Blues – The Secret of the Kells
9. Character Archetypes: How are these translated over different cultures, what changes? What remains the same? Why do some things change, what areas of a characters personality relate best to different cultures.
10. How have Fairytales become more culturally appropriate in animation due to the global audience?
11. How two Directors tell the same story. (Pocahontas and Nausicaa, Two cultures clash how is nature affected) – Nausicaa in the Valley of the Wind – Disney’s Pochahontas
12. The art style of different areas affecting the animation produced in those areas. – Bebe’s Kids